Thursday, July 14, 2016

STOP AND SMELL THE COFFEE by Max Dieter

If you
visited Lavender, Texas before I moved there you probably remember the local coffee
shop as Das Kaffee Haus. The former owner played oom-pah-pah music and did a
negligible business.I wanted to
modernize things – but not too much. My sister says I’m stuck in the 70’s, and
I say “what’s so bad about the 70’s?”

If
you come by, you’ll notice me. I’m the one in the polyester print shirt and
blue leisure suit. “Saturday Night Fever” is one of my favorite movies, and I
have one of those revolving disco balls in my living room.

When it came to
picking a name for my new and improved coffee shop, a Donna Summer song came to
mind and fit perfectly. Hot Stuff Coffee Shop was born.

I sell
coffee to plenty of quirky characters. First, we have the coffee addicts. They’ll
drink three, four, five, or sometimes more cups of coffee in a day. That’s a
serious budget line item, even though at Hot Stuff I charge a good bit less
than that other famous place – you know the one.Of course, being located in a Texas Hill
Country vacation town, we have lots of tourists. They visit during the summer to
raft down the river, in fall for the festivals, in winter for holiday shopping,
in spring for the bluebonnet tours. Last but not least are the locals
–townspeople who make it a habit to come in, hang out, people watch, and
gossip. Lord have mercy, can they ever gossip!

Now I don’t
mind people talking. Talk is normal. Talk is good. Gossip – not so good.
Especially when they talk about the old Bad Luck Cat legend.I can’t claim that I’ve ever had a cat of my
own.Not that I dislike cats, but my
wife and I have always been dog people. I heard the legend about the Bad Luck Cat
the first week I opened my shop, and I didn’t think much about it until I met
Sabrina Tate. Sabrina’s a mystery writer and one of my regular customers who
spends a good bit of time writing at Hot Stuff. She and a black cat named
Hitchcock adopted each other, and now some are saying that he’s the legendary Bad
Luck Cat. Shame on them. Most people are smart enough to not say this to
Sabrina’s face. She’s a writer and she could easily put someone in a book and
kill them. Not that doing so would make her feel any better. She’d prefer
people stop slandering her cat. Hitchcock’s a cool cat, and if I ever decided
to have a cat of my own I’d want one just like him.

Hitchcock and
Sabrina have solved a couple of local mysteries, and I hope they decide to
stick around. I, for one, feel like they make Lavender a much safer town to
live in.You can read about their
escapades in BLACK CAT CROSSING and THE BLACK CAT KNOCKS ON WOOD. And don’t
forget to stop and smell the coffee.

Regards,

Max

***

Kay Finch is the National Best-Selling Author of the Bad Luck Cat mysteries BLACK
CAT CROSSING and THE BLACK CAT KNOCKS ON WOOD by Berkley Prime Crime. She’s a member
of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the State Bar of Texas
Paralegal Division. Kay lives with her husband and pets in a Houston suburb.
Visit her at kayfinch.com.

Just enough story to wet my whistle. I'm always in a hurry. I'm usually early, but still always rushing... it's a horrible habit that I'm trying to break. I just need to pull over and read for a bit!! =) Marci - konecny7@gmail.com

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